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New ancient species of human found in the Phillipines

"The human family tree has grown another branch, after researchers unearthed remains of a previously unknown hominin species from a cave in the Philippines. They have named the new species, which was probably small-bodied, Homo luzonensis.The discovery, reported in Nature on 10 April1, is likely to reignite debates over when ancient human relatives first left Africa. And the age of the remains — possibly as young as 50,000 years old — suggests that several different human species once co-existed across southeast Asia."

"The newly discovered molars are extremely small compared with those of other ancient human relatives. Elevated cusps on the molars, like those in H. sapiens, are not as pronounced as they were in earlier hominins. The shape of the internal molar enamel looks similar to that of both H. sapiens and H. erectus specimens found in Asia. The premolars discovered at Callao Cave are small but still in the range of those of H. sapiens and H. floresiensis. But the authors report that the overall size of the teeth, as well as the ratio between molar and premolar size, is distinct from those of other members of the genus Homo.
The shape of the H. luzonensis foot bones is also distinct. They most resemble those of Australopithecus — primitive hominins, including the famous fossil Lucy, thought not to have ever left Africa. Curves in the toe bones and a finger bone of H. luzonensis suggest that the species might have been adept at climbing trees."

"The researchers are cautious about estimating H. luzonensis’ height, because there are only a few remains to go on. But given its small teeth, and the foot bone reported in 2010, Détroit thinks that its body size was within the range of small H. sapiens, such as members of some Indigenous ethnic groups living on Luzon and elsewhere in the Philippines today, sometimes known collectively as the Philippine Negritos. Men from these groups living in Luzon have a recorded mean height of around 151 centimetres and the women about 142 centimetres."

"“You get different evolutionary pathways on islands,” says palaeontologist Gerrit van den Bergh at the University of Wollongong in Australia. “We can imagine H. erectus arrives on islands like Luzon or Flores, and no longer needs to engage in endurance running but needs to adapt to spend the night in trees.”

"But, given the species’ similarities to Australopithecus, Tocheri wonders whether the Callao Cave dwellers descended from a line that migrated out of Africa before H. erectus."

I am struck by the difference in the bones of the feet with modern men, who show a possible adaptation to the arboreal life. A certain similarity with Australopithecus is proposed ... but will that be the reason for that strange aspect? Could not it represent a "readaptation" to the arboreal life of anatomically modern feet in their origin?

I am struck by the difference in the bones of the feet with modern men, who show a possible adaptation to the arboreal life. A certain similarity with Australopithecus is proposed ... but will that be the reason for that strange aspect? Could not it represent a "readaptation" to the arboreal life of anatomically modern feet in their origin?

I don't know if you saw this:
"The shape of the H. luzonensis foot bones is also distinct. They most resemble those of Australopithecus — primitive hominins, including the famous fossil Lucy, thought not to have ever left Africa. Curves in the toe bones and a finger bone of H. luzonensis suggest that the species might have been adept at climbing trees."

Yes, exactly. As I understand it, the oldest hominid outside Africa, Homo Georgicus, was found in the Caucasus region and would be related to the oldest member of the Homo genus, Homo Habilis. Australopithecus, much more primitive, has not yet been found outside of Africa. Since the new find is much more modern, and the region where it was found is very far from Africa, I wonder if the feet of modern type could have adapted again to the life in the trees ...

Thank you for sharing the news it's more than a huch that there so much more to dig and find. I have to wonder how will this one effect the ones before or more to the point what about the next.
I quess is it's time to except the fact that we are not alone. Tracing the pathway of discovery has been incredible but where will the next one be located still seems more real than yesterday discovery.

It is also possible that the species diverged in Africa long ago, retained some archaic features, then later spread to Asia.

Yes, it is also possible, but curved toe bones that may be great for climbing trees are not so great for making long migratory journeys walking upright. There certainly isn't a forest corridor from Africa all the way to Luzon today or at any time in the past three million years. In fact, Luzon is east of the Wallace line, which means there was always a substantial ocean gap that their australopithecine ancestors (if that's what they were) had to cross. Ocean going australopithecines? On balance I favour italouruguayan's hypothesis of re-adaptation. If humans could adapt relatively quickly to high altitude or high latitude environments, or shrink in size in response to small island or densely forested environments, why couldn't they re-evolve curved toes and fingers to adapt to an arboreal or semi-arboreal niche?